Industry-Academia Research Collaboration

Do we lack aptitude for applied research or is there dearth of researchers in our system? Else, is there lack of industry-academia research collaboration? The editorial titled ‘Green is gone’ published on 10^th July, 2025 in the daily Greater Kashmir aptly questioned our approach to issues on hand by asking, “Have we done a study to find out the reasons…..”. Another article titled ‘Weed to Wellness’ published in the 11^th July, 2025 edition of the same daily emphasized on the lack of research pertaining to cannabis in the context of Kashmir; author suggesting that research could help turn a substance as dangerous as cannabis into a medicine. Of course, by researchers’ intervention, cannabis could become a health product; and another industry could be up and running! If there is a potential business or industry on anvil or if a business has a problem on hand, what hinders the research into it?

Given the market conditions are dynamic – subject to volatility – all businesses are bound to face challenges and problems. Every business problem is unique in the sense that the macroeconomic factors impacting it and their interaction with firm-specific variables could result in negative effects, resulting in a problem to the business. Every business problem is unique; hence requires unique approach to understanding, evaluating and resolving it, which in turn demand a scientific study. A scientific study is essential for comprehensively understanding the real-world problems as it applies a systematic, reliable and an unbiased approach to identification of the causes to the problems and the possible solutions thereof.

In many local news dallies, this author often reads stakeholders including trade unions, federations and chambers advocating policy interventions by the government to catalyse various economic activities, ranging from interest-waiver from banks to cold storage capacity augmentation etc. However, least focus is given to understanding the genesis of business problems and the possible solutions thereof, which is possible through scientific studies only. This indicates that primarily, we as a society, lack research aptitude.

Now, let us come to the research skill. Every year hundreds of scholars attain Ph.Ds. from various universities including my alma mater Kashmir University. According to Kashmir University Profile 2025 document available on its official website, during the academic years from (2018-19) to (2023-24), a total of 1254 scholars have been awarded Ph.D. degrees. To dig more into relevant data, NIRF 2024 ranking data available on www.nirfindia.org indicates that in the 14^th ranked Kashmir University, till the academic year (2022-23), a total of 1192 scholars are reported to be pursuing Ph.D. doctoral program, and a total of 573 scholars are reported to have graduated with Ph.D. degrees during the academic years (2020-21) to (2022-23). From the data above, it is evident that there is no dearth of researchers in our system – thousands having attained the requisite research skills already.

Next to discuss is the industry-academic collaboration. The concept of collaboration, derived from the Latin collaborare meaning “to work together”, is a process that involves heterogenous entities sharing of information, resources and responsibilities in course of achieving a common goal by planning, implementing and reviewing a program of activities. It goes without saying that the collaboration between the industry and the academia calls for partnerships that involve sharing of resources, knowledge and responsibilities for fostering innovation as well as developing a skilled workforce to meet the requirements of the future industries for problem solving. On the industry-academia collaboration in the local context, NIRF ranking 2024 data indicates that the 14^th ranked University of Kashmir has attracted a total number of 22 projects for the academic years (2020-21) to (2022-23), collecting an aggregate amount of Rs. 8.14 crores apprx., as against 1^st ranked Chennai-based Anna University, which has been able to attract a total number of 2382 projects, collecting a hefty 84.38 crores as consultancy fees.

It is evident from the data that Anna University is more than 100 times active than Kashmir University when it comes to securing research-oriented consultancy projects. A corollary to this, Kashmir University has huge scope for bridging this industry-academic gap by establishing an Industry Interface Office on the lines of IIMs and other prestigious institutes as well as strategic partnerships like the recent partnership between IISc and Tata Group to establish a medical school to pioneer healthcare education and research, which would not only result in improved cash inflows to the university, it would also facilitate exchange of knowledge between the industry and the academia; besides augmenting the capacity of the research scholars of the university.

From policy point of view, NEP 2020 emphasises that HEIs will focus inter-alai, on greater industry-academic linkages (clause 11.12). NEP 2020 also acknowledges the requirement of close collaboration between industry and higher education institutions to drive innovation and research in the fields of engineering, technology, management, architecture, town planning, pharmacy, hotel management, catering technology etc. (clause 20.6).

In pursuit of resource input optimization and better productivity, business organizations generally focus on growth in revenue, cost control, product development and customer satisfaction and in course, could benefit greatly if they collaborate with universities to seek new ideas, to develop new business processes and to invent better technologies. While business organization aim at wealth creation, the academia generate new knowledge – both contribution to social development in their own ways. If both collaborate, it is a win-win situation, with businesses benefiting in terms of delivering innovative products and services percolating into wealth creation, the academia would demonstrate their knowledge-generation capacities, profoundly impacting both the business practices and administrative policies.

Industry-academia collaboration would also lead to knowledge transfer from our universities to the business enterprises to the benefit of these businesses; besides offering our universities ample cases studies to integrate into their academic courses, which would help the students to apply their theoretical knowledge to these real-life projects. The scholars of our universities would also get handy material to write white papers, conference papers etc., thereby honing their research skills as well as contributing to solving the local business problems.

To sum up, industry-academia research collaboration is the way forward to research-oriented business problem solving in Kashmir in a scientific manner.

Author is a PhD in Finance from KU's Department of Management Studies

Views expressed are personal.